With the help of U.S. defense contractors, China is building the prototype for a high-tech police state. It is ready for export.
[...]Remember how we've always been told that free markets and free people go hand in hand? That was a lie. It turns out that the most efficient delivery system for capitalism is actually a communist-style police state, fortressed with American "homeland security" technologies, pumped up with "war on terror" rhetoric. And the global corporations currently earning superprofits from this social experiment are unlikely to be content if the lucrative new market remains confined to cities such as Shenzhen. Like everything else assembled in China with American parts, Police State 2.0 is ready for export to a neighborhood near you.[...]
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye/print
Well if the author's going to define "free markets" as corporatism, sure, then it goes hand in hand with all the above. If they're going to be honest about their definitions though, their conclusion is a contradictory absurdity. What the hell are "superprofits" anyway? Super in relation to what? What could be earned on a free market?
-Jon
Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in any society...
This confusion between the free market and corporatism seems to be the main point of public misunderstanding of capitalism.
In a market free of state intervention can we find any of the dangers posed by corporatism?
And apparently not only the word "capitalism" is mis-interpreted, which I could live with, but "free-markets" are also confused with corporatism. It's amazing how often these strawmen are used in arguments against me. Stuff like "the current system of capitalism doesn't work, so more capitalism can't be better." It's absurd. Well, at least it's a good example of just how mindless people can become when exposed to brainwashing.